Review: We're the Millers

Image courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Comedies either work or they don't. They're funny or they're not. It's as simple as that. A majority of American comedies, especially those doled out by Hollywood studios, tend to be eye-roll inducing affairs.

"We're the Millers" is a typical Hollywood comedy in the sense that it knows no shame in its attempts to get laughs. It's pretty crude and it's fairly formulaic. The thing is, though, that it's funny. Often very funny.

And what makes the material work here is not only the casting, but the ability to exploit laughs at their expense without being mean spirited as so many other films of this type tend to do, namely "The Hangover" and its ilk.

But back to the casting. Jason Sudeikis gets more than his fair share of laughs here as David Clark, a laid back low level drug dealer who finds that he must smuggle a whole hell of a lot of pot across the Mexican border into the United States after finding himself in debt to his boss (Ed Helms).

The surprise here is that Jennifer Aniston, who is typically relegated to not-so-exciting rom coms, is equally funny. She plays Rose, the stripper next door whom David convinces to act as his wife to seem less suspicious while crossing the border. For those who doubt Aniston's comedic chops, check out the scene during which she pretends to be a religious zealot soccer mom to a plane stewardess.

The rest of the casting is pretty inspired, including Will Poulter and Emma Roberts as a geeky kid next door and a guttersnipe, respectively, whom David asks to be his fake children during the border crossing. And then there's Nick Offerman and Kathryn Hahn as a fellow traveling couple who are convinced that David and Rose are trying to swing with them.

The plot is fairly standard and even involves a cartel of Mexican drug dealers whom you might expect to find on any given week of "Breaking Bad."

But despite its overly familiar plot points, "We're the Millers" is often riotously funny, much more so that I would have expected it to be. And it's smarter, sweeter and better written than any of these yawn inducing summer tentpole comedies - "The Hangover Part III," "Grown Ups 2" and "This is the End."